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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27517156">They Need Love (To Help Them Heal)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayQueen517/pseuds/MayQueen517'>MayQueen517</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Old Guard Tumblr Prompts [15]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU: Andy was in the iron maiden rather than Quynh, Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Found Family, Gen, This was supposed to be a reunion fic and it is but it doesn't get fluffy-ish until the end, Unbeta'd, Universe Alteration, tumblr prompt that got out of control, whoops</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-08 04:54:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,874</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27517156</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayQueen517/pseuds/MayQueen517</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She calls out for help, asking the questions that spill over the way that her screams have torn her throat for a hundred different lifetimes. </p><p>Andromache thinks of the people she's missing and those she has yet to meet, putting one foot after the other, thinking only of Quynh. Of Yusuf. Of Nicolo.</p><p>Her family.<br/>---<br/>Universe Alteration of Andy was in the iron maiden rather than Quynh</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Quynh | Noriko</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Old Guard Tumblr Prompts [15]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1944751</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>114</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>They Need Love (To Help Them Heal)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello! </p><p>I love alternate universes and universe alterations which is what this one is! I got an anon prompt on Tumblr about an Andy/Quynh reunion but with Andy having been the one in the iron maiden. As ever, this got out of hand!</p><p>Title from 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' by Elton John (though the version I was listening to is the Elton John and George Michael one).</p><p>If you notice any typos, please <i>KINDLY</i> let me know! </p><p>Enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her voice is as rusty as the nails that held her prison closed for hundreds of years. Dripping, rising from the ocean that stole her life over and over and over, she stumbles to her hands and knees.</p><p>“I am Andromache the Scythian,” she rasps, salt water streaming from her lips, brought up from her very veins. Her chest aches, her ears popping as she adjusts to life above the water. “Where am I?” she shrieks, the fury of hundreds of years burbling forth.</p><p>The people on the beach scream when she does, frustration wiping the looks of confusion from their face to replace it with fear. They scatter and Andromache collapses to the sand, a dry sob startling the seabirds nearby. Her sobs turn to hysterical laughter before they slip back to grief.</p><p>She is scraped raw and it is only the rush of wind in her ears that reminds her she is above the waves.</p><p>Andromache pulls at the fronds of kelp that are stuck to her arms and legs, digging her hands and feet into the gritty sand, grounding herself. She rests her forehead in the sand, hair falling around her face, shielding her from the wind as she pushes herself to her feet. Her clothes have long since fallen away to the water, her hair growing and growing. </p><p>She calls out for help, asking the questions that spill over the way that her screams have torn her throat for a hundred different lifetimes. </p><p>Andromache thinks of the people she's missing and those she has yet to meet, putting one foot after the other, thinking only of Quynh. Of Yusuf. Of Nicolò.</p><p>Her family.</p><p>===</p><p>The door opens, sending a wave of musty air Andromache's way, her newly shorn hair fluttering from over her brow. The man before her looks like hell, and she should know.</p><p>"Hello, Booker," Andromache says, a knife concealed in her sleeve, the deep brown of the coat comforting around her torso. She watches the shock on his face, drunkenness fading as quickly as a wound and she curls her lip at him.</p><p>"This is a terrible way to live," she says casually.</p><p>"That's rich, coming from a woman who's drowned for five hundred years," Booker says, weapon still pointed at her and Andromache sighs slowly, placing her knife on the table. She holds her hands up, sitting down carefully. </p><p>"How did you get out?" Booker asks, grimacing, "<i>When</i> did you get out?"</p><p>"Everything dies, Booker. Even iron. I've seen a summer while out of the water. Perhaps a year?" she says, watching him lower his weapon - a gun, she reminds herself, remembering the diagram in the books she had stolen. </p><p>"Are you going to kill me?"</p><p>"Do you want me to?" Andromache asks, tilting her head, thinking of the dreams she's had of this man, of his grief. She thinks about his betrayal, his bitterness and she wonders if she would have done things differently.</p><p>Booker laughs sadly, scrubbing his hands over his face, "Maybe when we get to know each other a little better."</p><p>Andromache huffs softly, burying her face into the warmth of her coat, breathing in the scent of damp wool, still familiar after all these years. She doesn't think about the wool wraps she and Quynh had once bartered for before they were taken captive in England. Andromache remembers the red against Quynh's soft skin; a red that Andromache still dreams about, even out of the water.</p><p>"Where is the rest of our family?" Andromache asks, looking to Booker. His face twists, pain writing itself across it like fog across the fields near Quynh's home hundreds of years ago.</p><p>"Are you angry with them?" Booker asks, hand closing over his gun, steeling himself and Andromache thinks that in another life, she might be quite fond of them. Maybe she already is in this one. </p><p>"That they left me to rot? That they stopped looking? That they were unable to find me after nearly a hundred years of searching and bodies beyond counting?" Andromache asks, watching his fingers flex, his pointer finger hooking over the trigger. Andromache smiles approvingly, knowing that his dreams have been filled with her as long as hers have been occupied with him. </p><p>"You know-"</p><p>"I know what I know, Sébastien," Andromache says, voice firm, eyes narrowing. Booker swallows hard, looking to the ceiling, a murmur of French filling the tense silence. </p><p>"Quynh has never stopped grieving you. Joe and Nicky still talk about you like you will walk through the door any moment. I dreamed of you for two hundred years. The world has changed. Don't talk to me of what you know," Booker says, meeting her eyes. Andromache leans forward, selfishly enjoying the flicker of fear that flashes across his face. She stares him down, tracking his reaction. </p><p>"If you hurt them, I will drop you back into that ocean, Andromache," Booker says and Andromache knows that it is bravado. He brims with it, waiting for her move and Andromache sits back, smiling to herself.</p><p>"You are quite the protector for someone who betrayed them. Did you lose any sleep over it? Or did you just drink yourself into yet another coma. You forget, little brother," Andy spits, watching his flinch, "I dreamed of you as well for two hundred years. Your grief does not make it okay that you hurt those that loved you most."</p><p>"I know that," Booker says, face falling. His face is an open wound, refusing to close and Andromache thinks of Lykon. She thinks of another brother, lost to the years, his bright laugh her only companion some nights, wrapped in Quynh's arms. </p><p>"You owe it to them to live a better life," Andromache says finally. The silence in the small flat is easier, the tension breaking like a wave on the sand. Booker huffs softly, looking away from her. </p><p>"Let me get you set first and then I'll work on that."</p><p>They move around each other in silence, Booker leaving her to the kitchen and the rest of the flat to explore. She pokes in the cabinets, eating one of the bars he sits in front of her that she's stolen more than a few of. They're not particularly enjoyable but she's reminded of rations and that reminds her of Quynh. </p><p>Andromache thinks of fires, curling together for warmth, Yusuf and Nicolò grinning at her and Quynh. She thinks of inside jokes, a life that could have been spent together. She doesn't think about the inexorable arms of the ocean, ebbing and flowing with her own stability. She doesn't think about what the water has stolen from her. </p><p>Booker leads her to a bed, rumpled but freshly changed, handing her a few small booklets. </p><p>"Passport and new identity," he explains, opening the small, red booklet with a photo of her, stern and austere, that he had captured earlier. The passport says Andrea Smythe and Andromache snorts. </p><p>"You might find Andy easier to go by these days," Booker says, sitting beside her on the bed, "But you don't have to. There's a train ticket in there. It'll take you to the closest stop to the Echo safe house. I've printed you a map and I have a phone here for you. You don't have to use it. But my number is in there. Call me if you have questions."</p><p>"Like how to read? I <i>was</i> born before the written word, you know," Andromache says, holding the ticket up. She restrains her grin at Booker's baffled expression, trying to not laugh in her teasing. He watches her, searching her face before she starts to laugh.</p><p>The sound is rough, as rusty as the coffin she broke out of, her mirth causing her to double. Booker slowly joins her, his laugh equally rough but warm and she sighs softly. </p><p>"Thank you, little brother."</p><p>Booker stares at her for a moment, his laugh still lightening his expression before he reaches over, taking her hand firmly. She flinches away from it for a moment, staring at him before she allows him to rest his hand on hers. </p><p>"Anytime," Booker says softly, a smile tugging at his lips slightly.</p><p>===</p><p>The safe house is warm. The heat hums through the small dwelling and Andromache looks over the faces before her. Yusuf and Nicolò look on the verge of tears, Yusuf's gentle hand touching her shoulder as though he's reassuring himself that she's there. Nicolò stares at her, heart breaking over and over again before she makes herself move.</p><p>Andromache wraps them both in hugs, sobbing once, reminded of her forehead pressing into sand, grounding herself a year prior. They hold onto her, touching her face and her hair and Andromache isn't aware of their speech until the pull away from her. </p><p>"Andromache?" </p><p>The voice is soft, hopeful and broken all at once. Quynh stands before her, dark hair piled on top of her head, loose pants clinging to her legs and a baggy shirt that Andromache knows belongs to someone else. The young woman behind her must be Nile and Andromache resolves to introduce herself before her arms are full of Quynh.</p><p>Andromache inhales sharply, frozen for a moment, like so many years before when she was dragged into an iron maiden. She can't move, shuddering once at the contact, overwhelmed with the scent of Quynh and the solid weight of her. She closes her eyes, drifting for a moment before the continuous whisper of her name settles her. </p><p>"Quynh," Andromache whispers, falling forward to wrap her arms around the woman that her heart has revolved around since they met. Andromache doesn't sob, she doesn't cry, she simply loses herself in holding Quynh close.</p><p>Everything else can wait. </p><p>Later, curled around each other, foreheads pressed together and hands linked behind necks, Andromache allows herself to grieve the years lost to the sea. Quynh holds her close, an anchor on dry land as they kiss softly, Quynh's taste still the same. </p><p>"I have not taken a full breath since you were taken from me," Quynh whispers in the language of her childhood. Andromache has to search her mind for the memory, wondering if it's something the water took from her as well. </p><p>"My heart has kept beating for you," Andromache whispers finally, watching Quynh's dark brown eyes fill with tears. Andromache presses gentle kisses to her lips, her cheeks, her jaw, and anywhere else her lips will reach. Quynh sobs quietly, slumping into Andromache's waiting arms. </p><p>"Are you cold?" Quynh asks, not waiting on an answer as she eases the blankets over them. Andromache slips closer, tangling her arms around Quynh's torso and fitting their legs together like she never left.</p><p>"Not in your arms," Andromache says, listening and thrilling at the sound of Quynh's laugh. Andromache presses her face to Quynh's neck, feeling the reassuring beat of her pulse there, a sigh slipping out of Andromache. She relaxes finally, for the first time in over five hundred years, held by Quynh.</p><p>"I won't let go then," Quynh says softly, fingers combing through Andromache's hair gently. Andromache drifts off to a dreamless sleep for the first time in many years, held tightly by the woman she has never stopped loving.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Come chat with me at <a href="https://cactusdragon517.tumblr.com/">CactusDragon517 on Tumblr</a>!</p><p>If you don't mind, give the <a href="https://cactusdragon517.tumblr.com/post/634540080120332288/they-need-love-to-help-them-heal-mayqueen517">link to this</a> a reblog!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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